Category: Shako

Different rule systems assume different ground scales. So I thought I’d show one scenario map, a Liberators scenario by John Fletcher for the Battle of Ica, at different ground scales. And suggest which Wargaming Rules suit each scale.

James Falkus, Rich Wilcox, Chris Harrod and I wanted to try out Shako II. Because of my recent enthusiasm (Spanish Units at Albuera) I suggested the Albuera scenario from Fields of Glory (FOG). FOG is for Shako I and some aspects of the scenario bug me but nobody had the energy to make up a different scenario and we hoped it would be a good game anyway. It was!

Shako permits any basing system but recommends a few. I’ve gone for something slightly different to be consistent with my Shako Basing for the First Carlist War and Basing for the Liberators Quick Play Rules.(for the Chilean Campaign 1817-18) so I can do some mixing and matching of figures and/or rules.

As I start looking at writing more historical scenarios for Shako I thought I’d compile some guidelines for Scenario design. Mostly these are based on the Shako rules or suggestions in Fields of Glory.

The Crossfire supplement Hit the Dirt contains maps made using Campaign Cartographer 2 (CC2 Pro) (available from www.profantasy.com). Bill Rutherford, one of the authors of Hit the Dirt, kindly gave me some advice on using CC2 and the notes below are based on Bill’s advice and my own fumbling experiences.

Shako offers a default orders of battle for the Peninsular and Fields of Glory (FOG) – the Shako scenario book as opposed to the rules – has some Peninsular scenarios, including Albuera. I thought it would be interesting to compare these to each other and to the Historical Order of Battle.